Last week brought us the worst political ad in Virginia and it wasn’t Dan Helmer. Apologies to RVAMag’s Political Director. He’s totally right about all the ways Dan Helmer’s ad was a bad idea, it’s just that this ad is even worse.

We now have the Republican candidate for Virginia Governor, Ed Gillespie to thank for this. On September 20, Gillespie released an ad attacking his opponent, Democratic Lt. Governor Ralph Northam.

In case you missed it, you can check it out here:

The ad argues that the international criminal organization, MS 13, threatens Virginia residents. Who’s at fault? Of course, Northam, who “voted in favor of sanctuary cities that let dangerous illegal immigrants back on the street, increasing the threat of MS 13.”

2. The campaign is using the photo in question without permission, just swiping it from an online Salvadoran newspaper. (In academia, we call that plagiarism.) Nevertheless, the campaign doubled-down by calling it “fair use”, which makes it seem like they’re performing a public service with their garbage campaign ad.

3. The ad ties gang violence to immigration, while most of the MS 13 violence has been committed by U.S. citizens – a fact that is known to most human rights organizations, while their core membership comprises only about one percent of all gang activity in the US – making this line of reasoning a red herring and racial dog whistle.

4. In the ad, Northam is blamed for casting the deciding vote on a Republican-backed bill that would ban ‘sanctuary cities’. Basically, the bill would prevent Virginia cities and counties from declaring themselves a ‘sanctuary’ for illegal immigrants. As a result, law enforcement wouldn’t necessarily be compelled to cooperate with federal immigration officers. But Northam’s vote was only “deciding” because a Republican voted against the bill purely to set up Northam to cast the “tie breaker.”

(By the way, the Republicans later reintroduced the bill and passed it with no problems.)

5. What we call “Sanctuary cities” are not actually a real thing. Different localities commit to different levels of cooperation with immigration authorities throughout the Commonwealth. It’s complicated, but this bill that Northam supposedly cast the deciding vote for was mostly political theater, and was eventually vetoed by the Governor.

6. Worst of all, unsurprisingly, is the fact that the ad represents classic racist fear-mongering. Which is why it’s being compared the mother of all racist dog-whistles – the Willie Horton ad used in the 1988 presidential campaign. The ad is basically saying, “Thinking of voting for Ralph? The Mexican hordes are coming to assault your daughters.”

This ad essentially backs up what I said last week in a story I wrote for ABC 8: Gillespie is the underdog in this race. What’s more, this ad shows that he knows it. He’s pursuing a classic underdog strategy: (1) turn out your base by appealing to their bread-and-butter issues and/or, as in this case, their worst instincts; (2) go negative.

But it’s a pretty ugly strategy to watch unfold. Gillespie may or may not be desperate, but this ad represents the worst tendencies of his campaign and his party. It should make you think twice about what he’d be like in office.

Rich Meagher is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of Social Entrepreneurship at Randolph-Macon College. He teaches and writes about American conservatism, the Religious Right, and atheism and politics, and blogs about Virginia politics at RVAPolitics.